PEI Tractor Licence Plates

This is a "Sample" of a 1950 PEI passenger vehicle licence plate. At the time, all PEI passenger plates expired on March 31 but, typically, the government granted and extension to mid-April in recognition that many rural roads were impassible at the end of March due to either snow or mud. Vehicle owners had to travel to Montague, Charlottetown, or Summerside to re-register their vehicles.

My first introduction to licence plates occurred in April 1950 when Daddy installed new license plates, number 3-313, on his 1930 Model 'A' Ford. Gerald took me out to the vehicle and showed me the new licence plates. He then showed me the licence plates on the tractor and the trailer. The passenger plates were 6" x 12" and the tractor and trailer plates were 4 15/16" x 7 15/16" so I said the smaller ones were 'licence saucers'. Up to that time in my life, the only use of the word 'plate' I was familiar with was plates used for meals so I thought the smaller versions should be called 'saucers' but Gerald corrected me and informed me that even the smaller ones were called plates. This introduction to licence plates seems to have given me a life-long interest in licence plates and I am now one of two PEI residents who is a member of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association.

1950 was the last year of PEI passenger plates being in 4-digit format. It was the first year that passenger vehicle registrations exceeded 10,000 so, in the latter part of the year, the dot separator was removed and 5-digit plates were produced. In 1951, all PEI passenger plates were 5-digit with the stylized coat of arms and year (which appear on the left side of the 1950 plate) being moved to a place between the second and the third numerals.

PEI issued tractor plates from 1942 to 1964 inclusive. They were generally smaller than passenger car plates and similar to motorcycle plates. This is the licence plate that was on our Massey-Harris '30' in 1963.

General Steel Wares Ltd. manufactured PEI tractor plates from 1942 to 1949. General Assemblies of Amherst, NS manufactured them from 1950 to 1959 and Waldale Manufacturing of Amherst, NS manufactured them from 1960 to 1964. There were only 9 tractors registered on PEI in 1942. There were 1,269 registered in 1950 and 3,207 registered in the last year of issue - 1964.

This is the last licence plate that was on the Massey-Harris '30'. Both the 1963 and 1964 images show wear around the bolt hole in the upper left side of the plates. Frankie used to mount the plates on the tractor by removing a bolt from a panel on the upper left side of the tractor and then put the bolt through the licence plate and return it to its original place. Licence plates are visible on the '30' in Jean's potato digging pictures.